When Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives forced Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel to appear before them for the annual round of grandstanding about prison costs, Wetzel turned the tables and placed the blame where it belongs: on the legislature.
Wetzel and chairman of the Board of Probation and Parole …
Absent a tip to the Associated Press, the death of a prisoner at Kentucky State Prison would have remained shrouded in darkness. The tip led to an investigation that uncovered lapses in medical care as the prisoner starved to death.
Prisoner James Kenneth Embry, 57, had mental health …
The second death in six months of a pre-trial detainee at Pennsylvania’s Buck County prison has raised questions about its detox procedures. The scrutiny of such procedures should be a focal point for jail administrators throughout the nation because such deaths are occurring with increasing frequency.
In October …
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a bill that would have expanded the powers of private probation companies and shrouded their activities in secrecy.
House Bill 837 was introduced shortly after lawsuits were filed in Richmond and counties to challenge the constitutionality of private companies carrying out judicial processes. …
An administrator for Armor Correction Health Services, Inc., was forced out of his position by Florida’s Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
The administrator, Lewis Hays, was involved in the death of Allen Hicks, Sr. 51, who died at the Hillsborough County Jail after languishing for days in his …
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has released the Delaware Department of Correction (DDOC) from the terms of an amended memorandum of agreement (AMOA) on prisoner medical and mental health care. The DOJ and DDOC reached the original memorandum of agreement (MOA) in 2006 after The News Press published …
In the wake of his resignation as a Tennessee coroner, it was uncovered that Terry Jarnigan had no medical training and was previously convicted of violent crimes.
Just a short time after his civil rights were restored in the late 1990's, Jarnigan was appointed as the coroner of …
The Nevada Supreme Court held a prisoner was entitled to the grant of a writ of mandamus to compel the Nevada's Chief Medical Officer to periodically examine and semi-annually report to the Board of State Prison Commissioners Board regarding the nutritional adequacy of the diet of prisoners.
Prisoner …
Driven by “rage” and “revulsion” of registered sex offenders, the 2009 Nebraska Legislature enacted LB 97, which allowed law enforcement to monitor and restrict Internet usage by those offenders. In an exhaustive order following a trial, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Kopf held that sections of the legislation “gut …
The confines of prison render abuse by guards a virtually impossible crime to prosecute. The few cases that come to light and successfully prosecuted occur only with video evidence or the testimony of another guard. Florida Department of Corrections [FDOC] guard John Pisciotta took the courageous path to report …
